About the Journal

Archives of Breast Cancer (ABC) is an open access, peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles on all aspects of breast cancer research, including the pathophysiology, prevention, early detection, diagnosis, treatment, molecular and cellular biology, genetics, epidemiology, psychological issues, rehabilitation and quality of life. Although the main focus of the journal is breast cancer, some important topics among benign breast diseases and breast health such as breastfeeding will be considered for publication.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Authorship

An author is an individual who has significantly contributed to the development of a manuscript. International committee of medical journal editors (ICMJE) recommends that authorship be based on the following four criteria:

1) Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND

2) Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND

3) Final approval of the version to be published; AND

4) Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

- Acknowledgement

Individuals who participated in the development of a manuscript but do not qualify as an author should be acknowledged. Organizations that provided support in terms of funding and/or other resources should also be acknowledged.

- Changes in authorship

Whenever there is a need to make changes in the authorship of a manuscript or a published article, the changes will be implemented according to committee on publication ethics (COPE) specification. Only corresponding authors can make request for a change in authorship.

Ethics and Consent

- Human and Animal Rights

Any investigations involving humans and animals should be approved by the institutional review board and animal care committee, respectively, of the institution where the study took place. Archives of Breast Cancer will not consider any studies involving humans or animals without the appropriate approval. A statement detailing this, including the name of the ethics committee and the reference number where appropriate, must appear in all manuscripts reporting such research. If a study has been granted an exemption from requiring ethics approval, this should also be detailed in the manuscript (including the name of the ethics committee that granted the exemption). Manuscripts may be rejected if the Editor considers that the research has not been carried out within an appropriate ethical framework.

- Consent to participate

For all research involving human subjects, informed consent to participate in the study should be obtained from participants (or their parent or legal guardian in the case of children under 16) and a statement to this effect should appear in the manuscript.

Competing Interests

Competing interests may be financial or non-financial. A competing interest exists when the authors’ interpretation of data or presentation of information may be influenced by their personal or financial relationship with other people or organizations.

ABC requires authors to declare all competing interests in relation to their work. All submitted manuscripts must include a ‘competing interests’ section at the end of the manuscript listing all competing interests (financial and non-financial). Where authors have no competing interests, the statement should read “The author(s) declare(s) that they have no competing interests”. The Editor may ask for further information relating to competing interests.

Editors and reviewers are also required to declare any competing interests and may be excluded from the peer review process if a competing interest exists.

Plagiarism Detection

ABC is powered by the iThenticate software, which is a plagiarism detector service that verifies the originality of content submitted before publication. If plagiarism is identified, we will follow COPE guidelines.

Plagiarism includes (but is not limited to)

1) directly copying text from other sources

2) Copying ideas, images, or data from other sources

3) Reusing text from your own previous publications

4) Using an idea from another source with slightly modified language

If plagiarism is detected during the peer review process, the manuscript may be rejected. If plagiarism is detected after publication, we reserve the right to issue a correction or retract the paper, as appropriate.

Duplicate publication

Any manuscript submitted to Archives of Breast Cancer must be original and the manuscript, or substantial parts of it, must not be under consideration by any other journal.

In any case where there is the potential for overlap or duplication we require that authors are transparent. Authors should declare any potentially overlapping publications on submission. Any overlapping publications should be cited. Any ‘in press’ or unpublished manuscript cited, or relevant to the Editor’s and reviewers' assessment of the manuscript, should be made available if requested by the Editor. Archives of Breast Cancer reserves the right to judge potentially overlapping or redundant publications on a case-by-case basis.

Research Reporting Guidelines

Authors are encouraged to use the relevant research reporting guidelines for the study type provided by the EQUATOR Network. This will ensure that you provide enough information for editors, peer reviewers and readers to understand how the research was performed and to judge whether the findings are likely to be reliable.

Peer-Review Process

Peer review is an integral part of scientific publishing that confirms the validity of the science reported. Peer-reviewers are experts who volunteer their time to help improve the journal manuscripts they review-they offer authors free advice.

Key characteristics of peer review process are listed below:

All research articles are reviewed by at least two qualified experts.

All publication decisions are made by the journal’s Editors-in-Chief on the basis of the reviews

Members of the Editorial Board lend insight, advice and guidance to the Editor-in-Chief generally and to assist decision making on specific submissions

- Initial manuscript evaluation

All submitted manuscripts to ABC are read by the editorial staff. To save time for authors and peer-reviewers, only those papers that seem most likely to meet our editorial criteria are sent for formal review. Those papers judged by the editors to be of insufficient general interest or otherwise inappropriate are rejected promptly without external review (although these decisions may be based on informal advice from specialists in the field).

- Type of peer review

Archives of Breast Cancer employs double blind reviewing, where both the referee and author remain anonymous throughout the process.

- Selecting peer reviewers

Reviewer selection is critical to the publication process, and we base our choice on many factors, including expertise, reputation, specific recommendations and our own previous experience of a reviewer's characteristics.

Reviewers should bear in mind that these messages contain confidential information, which should be treated as such.

- How long does the review process take?Typically the manuscript will be reviewed within 4 weeks.

- Final report

A final decision to accept or reject the manuscript will be sent to the author along with any recommendations made by the referees, and may include verbatim comments by the referees.

The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Under the following terms:

Attribution— you must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

No additional restrictions—you may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Article Submission, Process, and Acceptance Charge

All articles submitted in Archives of Breast Cancer are peer-reviewed and if accepted, will be published online free of charges.

The journal does not receive any submission, process, or acceptance fee.

Publishing Schedule

Archives of Breast Cancer is published quarterly

Complaints Procedure

The best way to reach us is by email. Complaints should ideally be made to the person the complainant is already in contact with over the matter being complained about. If that is not appropriate please email our managing editor Dr Mojgan Karbakhsh (mkarbakh@sina.tums.ac.ir).

Whenever possible complaints will be dealt with by the relevant member of the editorial staff. If that person cannot deal with the complaint he or she will refer it to our managing editor.

All complaints will be acknowledged within three working days. If possible a full response will be made within four weeks.

If the complainant is not happy with the resolution he or she can ask for the complaint to be escalated to the editor-in-chief of ABC, Dr Ahmad Kaviani.

About Journal

Archives of Breast Cancer (ABC) is an open access, peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles on all aspects of breast cancer research, including the pathophysiology, prevention, early detection, diagnosis, treatment, molecular and cellular biology, genetics, epidemiology, psychological issues, rehabilitation and quality of life. As